How to put Linux Acrobat Reader 7.0.X on diet?
I liked Acrobat Reader 5.0.X because it was light-weighted, which was
a very important factor while I was running Slackware Linux on a
6-year laptop with Pentium III 600MHz and 256M of RAM. When
running without loading any document, Acrobat Reader 5.0.X consumes
only about 14.3M of memory.
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Acrobat5/bin> ./acroread &
[1] 9603
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Acrobat5/bin> ps up 9603 | awk '{print $6;}'
RSS
14300
|
However, Acrobat Reader 5.0.X is very much out-dated. It could not
display some of the PDF documents I received from others.
Additionally, I finally have a new laptop, which gives me some
luxuries to go with Acrobat Reader 7.0.X.
There is a problem with Acrobat Reader 7.0.X though: it is bloated and
very slow at start-up. When running without loading any document,
Acrobat Reader 7.0.X consumes as much as about 51.6M of memory --
about 3.6 times more than 5.0.X.
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Acrobat5/bin> cd /import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin/
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin> ./acroread &
[1] 9818
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin> ps up 9818 | awk '{print $6;}'
RSS
51588
|
The culprit of its bloated problem comes from the plugins: Acrobat
Reader 7.0.X loads all the plugins by default even when it does not
use them.
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin> cd ../Reader/intellinux/plug_ins/
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins> ls -l
total 55899
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 579314 May 7 2006 Accessibility.api*
drwxr-xr-x 2 weesan installer 80 Jan 5 11:56 AcroForm/
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 13164798 May 7 2006 AcroForm.api*
drwxr-xr-x 3 weesan installer 72 Jan 5 11:57 Annotations/
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 6087646 May 7 2006 Annots.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 3531806 May 7 2006 DigSig.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 1115726 May 7 2006 EFS.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 2701486 May 7 2006 EScript.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 254194 May 7 2006 LegalPDF.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 4778782 May 7 2006 MakeAccessible.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 1838782 May 7 2006 PDDom.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 10500190 May 7 2006 PPKLite.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 2447950 May 7 2006 SOAP.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 1395662 May 7 2006 SaveAsRTF.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 2090194 May 7 2006 SearchFind.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 992814 May 7 2006 SendMail.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 1415030 May 7 2006 Spelling.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 2275646 May 7 2006 checkers.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 1026494 May 7 2006 ewh.api*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 weesan installer 953662 May 7 2006 wwwlink.api*
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins>
|
So, I played around and got rid of the execution permission of all the
plugins. That has the effect of preventing all the plugins from being
loaded at start-up.
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins> chmod -x *.api
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins> ls -l
total 55899
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 579314 May 7 2006 Accessibility.api
drwxr-xr-x 2 weesan installer 80 Jan 5 11:56 AcroForm/
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 13164798 May 7 2006 AcroForm.api
drwxr-xr-x 3 weesan installer 72 Jan 5 11:57 Annotations/
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 6087646 May 7 2006 Annots.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 3531806 May 7 2006 DigSig.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 1115726 May 7 2006 EFS.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 2701486 May 7 2006 EScript.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 254194 May 7 2006 LegalPDF.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 4778782 May 7 2006 MakeAccessible.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 1838782 May 7 2006 PDDom.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 10500190 May 7 2006 PPKLite.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 2447950 May 7 2006 SOAP.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 1395662 May 7 2006 SaveAsRTF.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 2090194 May 7 2006 SearchFind.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 992814 May 7 2006 SendMail.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 1415030 May 7 2006 Spelling.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 2275646 May 7 2006 checkers.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 1026494 May 7 2006 ewh.api
-rw-r--r-- 1 weesan installer 953662 May 7 2006 wwwlink.api
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins>
|
Now, not only does Acrobat Reader 7.0.X consume only about 21.6M of
memory, which is less than half of what it did before, but also it
starts up almost instantaneously.
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins> cd -
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin> ./acroread &
[1] 9939
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin> ps up 9939 | awk '{print $6;}'
RSS
21600
|
Tada! Acrobat Reader 7.0.X is on diet :)
Of course, I am not using any fancy features from Acrobat Reader 7.0.X
such as filling forms, spelling checking, connecting WWW from
clickable links, annotating, running javascript, etc. I do, however,
find the search feature quiet handy sometimes. So, I enabled just
"SearchFind.api" plugin, which increased the memory by a little to
about 22.9M.
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin> cd -
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins> chmod +x SearchFind.api
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins> cd -
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin> ./acroread &
[1] 10041
weesan@wee:/import/pkgs/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/bin> ps up 10041 | awk '{print $6;}'
RSS
22904
|
In summary, Acrobat Reader 7.0.X consumes much less memory and starts
up much faster when the execution bit of some or all plugins of
Acrobat Reader 7.0.X is
turned off. Readers are free to try it out yourselves. But, be warned,
USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. The author of this article is not liable
nor responsible for any damage or data loss you may have. Enjoy and
have fun.
$Id: acroread_on_diet.html,v 1.2 2007/05/07 17:20:26 weesan Exp weesan $